The Church
The component gods * Calistria is the flesh and vengeance of the god of gods (provider of baked goods). ** The priest of Calistria has been manipulated into thinking Edme is solely responsible for its own suffering and needs to be purged. * Cayden Cailean is the blood of the god of gods (provider of booze). ** The priestess of Cayden is largely incapable of sober thought but also madly in love with Calistria's priest and follows him, hoping everything will randomly work out. * Erastil is the community of the god of gods (provider of laws). ** No priest is involved with the Church, nor has Edme had one (since Erastillian priests never enter cities and embrace the "simple life", leading by example). * Iomedae is the sword of the god of gods (provider of justice/retribution). ** Iomedae's priestess was unable to be manipulated like the others and was instead taken hostage. She was later sold to Foxy on the condition Foxy never free her. * Shelyn represents the love and beauty of the god of gods. ** The priest of shelyn is madly in love with Fjarn and has "found beauty in him". Homes for the Dying The Homes for the Dying are another wing of the Church. Families pay for their loved ones to be given a respectful death. The priests and nuns who work in these Homes believe that they can give the sinners who "come their way" can be given a kind of beatific vision which can only be reached through suffering, so while the clerics feed and house the dying, they do not treat their disease nor provide any relief or care during their final hours, days, or months. The Homes are run by the Godmother, advisor to the bishop-prince. Exorcists The exorcists follows the (interpreted) ramblings of four mentally handicapped schizos (more commonly called the Oracles) who see demons in people, animals, places, things. The exorcists then seeks to exorcise the demons through a "holistic" and "whole body/mind" exorcism which involves physical and psychological torture in addition to starvation, the use of "holy water" (diseased/tainted water). The exorcists themselves don't know who runs the show, they think they are dealing with difficult problems the only way they are able, problems beyond the scope of everyday techniques. The leadership (the bishop-prince and high priests) don't officially condone the exorcisms except as a last resort (in order to distance themselves when things inevitably go wrong) but the exorcists take orders from Speaker Whitt so that is largely irrelevant. Leadership High Priests The religious gang, worshippers of Urgathoa, praise their dark goddess by spreading virulent disease among the Edmen. They mostly do so by infecting food and bedsheets, to ensure the proper exultations are shown toward Urgathoa. They also apply a disease to their weapons and throw flasks of airborne disease as grenades. In addition to their quarter, they also run a number of "Vile Shrines" throughout the other quarters, where locals can pay respects to Urgathoa. * Father Fjarn is the public speaker of The Church: "the face that faces the people" but like the other high priests, serves the bishop-prince. Of all the high priests, he is the only one who isn't aware of the church's true nature and has just been manipulated into spreading Obscuro's contrived fantasy's with the aim of making money. * "The Godmother" (aka Mother Fakah) runs the Homes for the Dying and maintains the Church-controlled tunnels beneath Edme. Like the other high priests, serves La Papa Obscuro. * Speaker Whitt (or Father Whitt) interprets the wishes of the Oracles and sends his holistic exorcists to eliminate threats to the church and also on irrelevant missions to avoid attracting suspicion. * Father Squall (or Festus Squall since he is not a cleric) is officially the high priest who tends to administrative matters like how the church communicates. In actuality, he is behind the secondary purpose of both the Pox and the Homes. He was the one who modified the Pox for the Church's benefit and the person behind the reanimation of the various corpses getting dumped in the Pits by the Godmother. He is also the inventor of La Papa Obscuro and uses his control of the Church's communication system and occasionally a number of illusions and transmutations to manipulate the other high priests in believing LPO actually exists. The bishop-prince The bishop-prince aka La Papa Obscuro encourages the running of the Church's various operations while maintaining enough distance to exclude his involvement or deny culpability so that the remaining wings of the Church can continue operating openly. He is an elusive fellow who is rarely seen in public, but is said to be kind and generous. Soft-spoken and having a gentle smile, he is said to be understanding of and friendly to even to the most despicable Galtan if they show interest in converting to the true path.